Present, past and Future

The camunda modeler is based on the Eclipse BPMN 2.0 Modeler that integrates into the Eclipse IDE. Its aim was to allow users with technical focus to create BPMN 2.0 diagrams and maintain BPMN and camunda BPM / Activiti specific attributes in those diagrams.

Beginning October 2012, we decided to dedicate bigger long term efforts to make the modeler a general purpose tool to create and refactor BPMN 2.0 diagrams. As a result the focus of the tool shifted towards user friendliness, quality (in terms of bugs) and an easier maintainable code base.

Since then, we have taken huge steps forward:

We simplified the modeler architecture.

We established a test infrastructure which comprises both unit tests for modeler features as well as blackbox user interface tests (400 Unit tests and 45 Minutes of blackbox Jubula tests).

We rewrote many, if not most of the modeler features to increase testability and maintainability of the code base.

We wrote a new model import to allow it to work with (most) diagrams, including BPMN 2.0 exports from other tool vendors.

We reworked the property panels and added help texts and input validation to aid the user.

We added advanced layouting features for flows to make it easier to work with complex models.

As of now there are still numerous areas to improve and work is long from finished. Many things such as layouting of message flows, better handling of pools and refactoring of the symbol palette are on our roadmap. Further, we would like to publish the modeler as a ready-to-use standalone tool for non-Eclipse users. Progress on all these issues is documented in both our technical changelog as well as in our release notes.

The modeler for contributors

We highly encourage you to contribute to the modeler if you share our vision of a user friendly, high quality BPMN 2.0 modeling tool. Check out our contribution guidelines to get started. Tell us what you think and share your ideas on the tool in our development forum.